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Hidden FBI Microphones Exposed In California (cbslocal.com)
An anonymous reader writes: "Federal agents are planting microphones to secretly record conversations," reports CBS Local, noting that for 10 months starting in 2010, FBI agents hid microphones inside light fixtures, and also at a bus stop outside the Oakland Courthouse, to record conversations without a warrant. "They put microphones under rocks, they put microphones in trees, they plant microphones in equipment," a security analyst and former FBI special agent told CBS Local. "I mean, there's microphones that are planted in places that people don't think about, because thats the intent!" Federal authorities are currently investigating fraud and bid-rigging charges against a group of real estate investors, and the secret recordings came to light when they were submitted as evidence. "Private communication in a public place qualifies as a protected 'oral communication'..." says one of the investor's lawyers, "and therefore may not be intercepted without judicial authorization."
They put a microphone in my iPhone.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
The FBI is doing it, so it must be legal... /sarcasm
It's time that these abuses of rights were charged as criminal offences. Sadly this requires an organisation with the ability to investigate the FBI and bring charges. The US constitution gives that power to a grand jury, but it would be a brave prosecutor who enpanelled one to do it.Oh well - here's hoping...
...Now the cameras record us on the streets and nobody minds.
speak for yourself...It isn't that 'nobody minds' it's more 'we can't do a bloody thing about it'. Big, big difference.
When I was young, we'd make fun of the need for people in the USSR to present papers when travelling around. Now we do it every time we fly. Similarly, we would tell horror stories of German STASI surveillance, but now the NSA and FBI have surveillance mechanisms that far surpass those the Germans ever had.